Reply to the letter to the editor “Comment to ‘Impact of postmastectomy radiotherapy on the outcomes of breast cancer patients with T1-2 N1 disease; an individual patient data analysis of three clinical trials’”

Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to reply the letter to the editor published in regard to my manuscript published previously in
Strahlentherapie und Onkologie [
1]. I, however, have to highlight the following points:

1.

The authors of the letter to the editor stated that my conclusions are: “Postmastectomy radiotherapy in T1-2 N1 breast cancer patients who have received modern chemotherapy drugs, does not provide any benefit for overall and disease-free survival.” In fact, my conclusions—as clarified in the abstract—are: “The current analysis does not show a beneficial impact of PMRT on overall or relapse-free survival among patients with T1–T2 N1 disease who received standard adjuvant systemic therapy. There is, however, evidence of improvement in locoregional relapse-free survivalwith PMRT.” So, the study did not tackle disease-free survival but rather relapse-free survival (which is a completely different concept). Moreover, the study did not deny some...